Smaller N.B. communities more efficient: report

Smaller N.B. communities more efficient: report

FREDERICTON – A new report ranking the province’s municipalities suggests smaller communities are more efficient and effective when it comes to delivering services and using taxpayers’ dollars.

The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies released its first New Brunswick Municipal Performance Report this week, suggesting smaller villages and towns are more efficient than larger urban centres.

“There’s no excuses not to be efficient or effective, whether you’re big, small or medium-sized (or) whether you’ve got fancy urban demands or demands around growth or whether you’re small and facing decline,” said Charles Cirtwill, executive vice-president of AIMs.

Florenceville, Cambridge-Narrows and Port Elgin were ranked as the top three municipalities within the report. St. Martins, Grand Manan, Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska, Dorchester, Doaktown, Bertrand and Canterbury all made the Top 10.

But Cirtwill warned against jumping to the conclusion that larger communities are wasteful and inefficient.

For example, although Moncton ranks 53rd with a “C,” the city still ranked strongly in some categories, such as economic development.

Cirtwill said municipalities aren’t always scrutinized as closely as provincial and federal governments.

“There isn’t a lot of information out there. People don’t know who to ask or where to go,” he said.

“This really is an exercise in trying to give people a single-point access to start talking about municipal performance on a much regular basis.”